www.JustAdventureTravel.net

Page-2 My Road to the 2017 NORRA Mexican 1000 The Biggest Adventure of them All
A 1,300 + Mile Off-Road Race through Baja Mexico

This is a wild 12-month journey of a husbond and wife team preparing to race a motorcycle through some of the toughest terrain on this planet, Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. We have never raced a motorcycle before so this for sure will add to the adventure. Hang on here we go…

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Of course, skip all the dribble if you like and just check out the photos
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To catch up, R3 Racing of Hayward is doing the motorcycle engine rebuild.
The owner of the shop Rick, is a vintage motorcycle racer and national champion many times.
He tells me about some ice races in the area this winter.
There are some cool restored bikes and yet to be restored bikes in Ricks shop. Be sure to
stop by if you are in the Hayward Wisconsin area. You will feel vary welcome.

Rick is so into internal combustion motorcycle engines. I get his take on what can be done
and what should be done, we are in sync and I can tell Rick knows what he is talking about. You
can feel the confidense.

A good 50 miles of varied speed break-in miles on the ride back home. It feels like a new
motor.

I have the Yamaha 250 setup sweet it feels much more comfortable standing then the XR400
does. I need to raise the 400’s handlebars now before I start mounting all the navigation
equipment.

The bars are going up another 1.5 inches. I wish it were more, we will just have to see what
that feels like.

Parts and equipment have been coming in and piling up. I have gotten some fantastic advice
here on mods I should do to the bike and equipment I should get. I agree with the advice and
wish I could do them all, but I am low budget here. As with any design, its a compromise. On my
next post I will spell out what I should do as recommended by some vary respected and cool Baja
racer peoples (THANKS AGAIN!) and spell out what I am going to do as a compromise. This will be
fun, stay tuned.

To start, I am not going with the steering damper, too expensive. Its not just the damper
it’s all the other stuff where the cost really adds up. Plus, I’ve never ridden with a damper.
No one had dampers back in 67’. So I will stick with the vintage theme even though the bike is
a 2000’. I know what I can do with no damper, I know I can compete in Baja with what I got. (I
play these mind games all the time to get what I want, meaning no excuses)

My standing position is not good with my new desert bars. I’m going with these high bars.
This will put me less bend over and more forward when standing.

After:

I love this advice, race with the Road-Book, not GPS. The idea of following a road-book
sounds totally me. Heidi and I have spent over a year riding Central America and never used a
GPS, I’ve never owned one. I have always exclaimed “a GPS would take away part of the fun, the
adventure”, meaning having to read a map and navigate on your own wits is fun to the highest
degree, for me. Why would I use a GPS that would take that away? Heidi and I are a great 2-up
team, especially when navigating through challenging places like Guatemala or Nicaragua.

Anyway, I looked close at every road-book reader I could find on-line and convinced myself
that I could design and build one myself (and of course save fifteen hundred bucks). We will
see.

The perfect sized box came in the mail from Allied Electronics. Most of the other materials
I either had or I got at a local hardware store.

I designed and hand built the cabin we are living in so I’m confident I can do this. I never
built a house before either.

The first inner shell prototype on the left worked but I was confident I could make it
better. So I try again.

Sheet metal bender:

This time I get Heidi in to work the hammer while I did the bending. I think she liked it
when I said “whack it harder!”

Starting to take shape

As far as I can tell the race-book scrolls given out at the NORRA 1000 (I hope they will be
giving the out) will be 8 inches wide. I’m allowing room for slop just in case I have to tape
the entire scroll myself and its not perfectly straight, or in case it just decides to roll
funny. Either way I figure I should have ‘persuaders’ to help keep the scroll on track. I
looked everywhere but could not find anything that would work, so I figure I could make my
own.

The new prototype fills the inside of the box better. I never assumed I would do it perfect
the first spin.

Time to make the holes for the axils.

I need collars on the end of the rods. The internet is fantastic for this stuff.

Time to tape up a road-book scroll and see if it works. This is last years Mexican-1000
road-book, day-1. I just printed it out and taped it up. As advised I will be prepared with
tape for the race if need be.

Winding on the road-book roll.

Its going on just fine. And the scroll is anything but straight.

Oh yes, still a lot of work to do but this will work.

Time for some ideas on how to mount it to the bike.

Instrumentation mounting bracket is next. I need room for the road-book reader, an iPhone
someone gave me to run RallyBlitz compass heading and odometer. I know RallyBlitz can do
odometer also but I just don’t want to put too much trust in one used electronic device. (I
will have a hand compass just in case also)

1/8 aluminum should work. It cuts, its strong and it bends. I bought a big sheet for $19 on
the internet.

There’s a model shop at the place I work. The guys in the shop said I can use the band saw
and someone will bend it for me. This is so great and how fun. Designing it and building it
puts the preparation intensity at a whole new level. My entire body and mind are focused on
doing this and doing this right. My collage Spanish teacher wrote me and said “You have been
preparing for this your whole life” I guess she knows me better then I thought.

OK, more picks of the bike prep:

I love to mess with motorcycle engines. My first major was Engine Technology, design and
testing of IC engines. Could there be a cooler thing to study right out of high school!

I read about a 'Gordon's mods' for XRs. I know about breathing and turbulence, and this is
free, I had to do it.

A big ring around the weld area. Turbulence and restricted breathing.

The 1" grinding wheel doesn't come close to fitting in the 1" header.

The stone wheel did almost nothing by itself. This round file cut a quick grove in the weld
then the grinding wheel did the rest.

The ultimate, a steel grinding wheel. My father had all this stuff in the toolbox I
inherited, the one in the far back. As a kid I had full access to my dads tools and
workroom.

My dad. He would be 110 if he was alive today

The nav bracket is taking shape.

Time for a few more pics

Sprockets, chain and breaks today.

I cannot get that master link out of the old chain, its got a head on it.?? And of course
that nifty chain breaker I just bought doesn't fit the chain.

Hacksaw goes into action. I will have to make sure this comes along to mexico. You never
know...

The rear bearings need grease for sure.

Everything is cleaned than locktite.

Beautiful... I had to remove the front sprocket case guard to fit the 16T sprocket.Not liken
it. I will have to grind the case guard to fir the T16.

After a major thaw last week we finally get some snow. Not enough to do any good though.

I like it. Next will be the clutch and throttle cables while I wait for the new triple clamp
steering damper kit. I'll grease the steering head then.